Iraq VSFS seeks to connect Iraqis and Americans in innovative ways to increase mutual understanding. Our virtual intern, University of Wisconsin Antoinette Pick-Jones has been working to increase connections between American and Iraqi young people using blogs, facebook and skype.The pilot program to “hire” virtual student foreign service interns has been a real boon for developing person-to-person connections using the internet.
Our Facebook Page
With over 200 followers, over half of them Iraqis, the Virtual Student Foreign Service: Iraq Facebook page is a huge success.Intern Pick-Jones at the University of Wisconsin has led the charge, posting on a variety of topics.Mariam Hanna, an Iraqi medical student, has assisted with translation of postings into Arabic.
The Facebook page has been an excellent resource for fostering dialogues between Iraqis and Americans as well as Iraqis with each other.Though the program is being coordinated from Madison and Baghdad, the students who are making connections are from many different cities including Tekrit, Washington DC,and various locations across the United States.There are also a number of Iraqis who are now studying in the US who have many interesting things to share. Discussion topics vary in subject matter from a forum to share basic information about oneself or a forum to share viewpoints on Iraq.The response has been very positive as Iraqis have shared and debated their perspectives on the greatest challenges facing Iraq.For American and Iraqi students, the page has served the locus for connecting on a "pen pal" level.
It is our hope that the page will continue to grow in size in order to connect more Iraqis and Americans.The page shares Iraqi and American culture through photographs from the two main participating cities, Madison, Wisconsin and Baghdad, Iraq.The photos highlight student life as well as life in each location.
The group hopes to use skype to connect University of Wisconsin students and professors to Iraqi universities.The first of hopefully many skype conference calls should take place in October.Meetings have been taking place with the Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic departments at the University of Wisconsin in order to help facilitate more formal connections and video conferences in the classroom.So far, there has been great interest, including prospects to take part in a Middle Eastern Symposium being held at the University of Wisconsin in spring.A long term goal is developing a curriculum based on the VSFS program that would connect a classroom in Baghdad and a classroom in Madison on a weekly basis.As the Middle Eastern Studies department continues to grow, this is a definite possibility. In November, film director Doug Liman and producer Avram Ludwig have agreed to help promote the Democracy Video Challenge. Beyond the Democracy Video Challenge, several film students from the University of Wisconsin as well as HowardUniversity in Washington, DC have expressed interest in working on a climate change focused project with two Iraqi filmmakers.
Blogging
In order to more easily advertise VSFS: Iraq, we are developing this "blogspot" to communicate basic information about the program's goals and opportunities that are available for those who are interested.The title of the blog is "US IRAQ Connections" and can be viewed at www. usiraqconnect.blogspot.com
Email
In order to better direct questions and comments about the program an email has been created.The email address is vsfsiraq@gmail.com.
More To Be Done
Future goals include working with meetup.com to form Iraq and democracy focused meet up groups in both Madison and eventually in Baghdad.By having a regular time to discuss topics relevant to the current political, social, and economic situations in Iraq, Americans will increasing understanding while Iraqis will be able to positively express their concerns and ideas for future progress.
